Sliding door assembly



Oct. 4, 196$ J. J. G. MARKUS 3,276,166

' SLIDING DOOR ASSEMBLY Filed Jan. 14, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 0d. 4, 1966J. J. G. MARKUS 3,276,166

SLIDING DOOR ASSEMBLY Filed Jan. 14. 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United StatesPatent 3,276,166 SLIDING DOOR ASSEMBLY Jan Jacob Grard Markus,Rembrandtstraat 1822, Rotterdam, Netherlands Filed Jan. 14, 1964, Ser.No. 337,604 Claims priority, application Netherlands, Jan. 14, 1963,

2 Claims. (Cl. 49410) This invention relates to a sliding door forclosing an opening in a wall, which comprises rollers, movable along atleast one supporting rail and means for moving the door towards the wallas it reaches its closed position, so that the door is in contact withthe wall along its periphery.

In order to prevent undesirable thermal losses, any refrigerating spaceshould be provided with one or more properly sealing doors. These doorsmay be constructed as hinged doors or as sliding doors. Sliding doorshave the advantage that they take up little space in their openposition, but present the difiiculty that they should be movable to andfro free of the wall to be closed, but have to be moved towards the wallin the closed position so as to be peripherally in contact with theframe of the opening in the wall.

In a prior sliding door construction, the suspension mechanism is, forthis purpose, provided with means by which the door is moved towards thewall after it has reached its closed position. In the case of a heavysliding door for a large refrigerating hold, which may weigh as much :as400 kg., the closure mechanism becomes rather intricate and thenrepresents a considerable weight and cost item.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple solutionfor the problem.

To this effect, according to the invention a supporting rail is providedwith a locally recessed carrying surface and with a guide surfaceinclined upwardly away from the wall, and the door is provided withrollers cooperating with said carrying surface and said guide surface.

In addition, according to the invention, the carrying surface and theguide surface may be substantially at right angles to each other, andthe axes of the rollers cooperating with the respective surfaces may belocated in two planes which are substantially perpendicular to eachother.

By virtue of this construction, when the sliding door has come in frontof the opening the carrying rollers sink into the recessed sections ofthe carrying surface, but as a result of the inclined position of theguide surface, the sliding door is at the same time moved towards thewall. Such an arrangement is particularly suitable for closing apassage-way to a refrigerating space, since the door must be free of thefloor as it is moved along the rails, but comes to bear on the floorwhen the passage is closed, so that it also seals at the bottom side.

For opening the sliding door, according to the invention, there may beprovided an auxiliary rail mounted for movement along the said carryingrail, and having cams at or adjacent the locally recessed section, suchcams extending up to the carrying surface of said'carrying rail.

In illustration of the invention, one embodiment of the arrangement willbe described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which FIG. 1 shows a front elevation of a wall providedWith a carrying rail;

FIG. 2 is a lateral view on the line IIII in FIG. 1, showing the door inthe open position;

FIG. 3 is a lateral view, showing the door in the closed position.

Patented Oct. '4, 1966 Referring to the drawings, the carrying rail 1has two recessed sections 2 and 3 on both sides of the opening in thewall to be closed. Suspended from the carrying rail 1 is a door 4. Thedoor is at the top provided with sets of rollers, consisting of tworollers (5, 6 and 7, 8, re spectively), the axes of which are located intwo planes which make an angle of substantially with each other. Of eachpair of rollers, one travels along the carrying surface of the rail andthe other is supported on the guide surface.

Along the inner edge and the lower edge of the door, packing 9 isprovided. When the door is open, this packing is spaced a short distancefrom the wall of the refrigerating space, and the lower edge of the dooris slightly raised from the floor. As soon as the door arrives in itsclosed position, the carrying rollers sink into the recessed sections 2,3 of the carrying rail. By the guide rollers 6, 8, which also movediagonally downwardly, the door is now moved towards the wall, as aresult of which the packing edge is in contact With the door frame, thelower edge of the door bears on the bottom, and the refrigerating spaceis hermetically sealed. In order to ensure that the door is also inproper contact with the frame at the bottom side at all times, and isnot forced off the frame by any pressure in the refrigerating space, tworotatable frusto-conical closure cams 14 and 15, the inclination ofwhich is equal to that of the guide surface of the carrying rail, areprovided on the bottom on both sides of the entrance to therefrigerating space.

For opening the door a narrow auxiliary rail 10 is mounted for movementalong the carrying rail. The auxiliary rail is provided with two earns11, 12, which are beveled on one side and have the same height as thecarrying rail 1.

The auxiliary rail is movable along the carrying rail by means of alever 13 or other power transmission device, and that in such a mannerthat the cams 11, 12 for lifting the door from its closed position, arebrought under the carrying rollers 5 and 7, respectively, and thus liftthe door with the rollers upwardly and at the same time away from thewall.

In this manner the frictional resistance of the packing on the wall isremoved before the door is moved along the carrying rail.

Furthermore a thrust cam may be mounted on the carrying rail, which,after the carrying rollers have been lifted out of the recessed sectionsof the carrying rail by the beveled cams, runs against the door, wherebythe latter is moved away.

Although this sliding door construction is particularly intended forsealing a refrigerating space, it need not be limited to that use. Forexample, such a sliding door construction may be used for fireproofdoors or for gastight or water-tight doors.

I claim:

1. A sliding door assembly for closing an opening in a wall, comprisinga supporting track having right angularly disposed faces, saidsupporting track being mounted on the wall in a tilted position abovethe door opening and being provided with spaced recesses in one faceadjacent the door opening, a door suspended from said track bysuspension means mounted on the door, said suspension means comprisingspaced sets of rollers, each set comprising right angularly disposedrollers simultaneously engaging said right angularly disposed faces ofsaid supporting track, whereby the door will gravitate downwardly andinwardly against the wall when in a closed position, and cam means fixedadjacent the opening and engaging the bottom margin of the door to urgethe bottom margin inwardly against the wall when in the closed position.

2. A sliding door assembly for closing an opening in a Wall, comprisinga supporting track having right angularly disposed faces, a doorsuspended from said track by suspension means mounted on the door, saidsuspension means comprising spaced sets of rollers, each set comprisingright angularly disposed rollers simultaneously engaging said rightangul'arly disposed faces of said supporting track, said supportingtrack being mounted in a tilted position above the door opening andbeing provided with spaced recesses in one face adjacent the dooropening whereby the door will gravitate downwardly and inwardly againstthe wall when in a closed position, cam means fixed adjacent to thebottom margin of the door and engaging said bottom margin of the door tourge the bottom margin inwardly against the wall when in the closedposition, an auxiliary rail mounted adjacent and essentially parallel tosaid carrying track for longitudinal References Cited by the ExaminerUNITED STATES PATENTS 520,713 5/1894- Summerman 20l9 1,635,926 7/1927Conrad 1699 2,517,823 8/1950 Angell 16-97 X 2,878,532 3/1959 Clark 20-l9HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Primary Examiner.

K. DOWNEY, Assistant Examiner.

1. A SLIDING DOOR ASSEMBLY FOR CLOSING AN OPENING IN A WALL, COMPRISINGA SUPPORTING TRACK HAVING RIGHT ANGULARLY DISPOSED FACES, SAIDSUPPORTING TRACK BEING MOUNTED ON THE WALL IN A TILTED POSITION ABOVETHE DOOR OPENING AND BEING PROVIDED WITH SPACED RECESSES IN ONE FACEADJACENT THE DOOR OPENING, A DOOR SUSPENDED FROM SAID TRACK BYSUSPENSION MEANS MOUNTED ON THE DOOR, SAID SUSPENSION MEANS COMPRISINGSPACED SETS OF ROLLERS, EACH SET COMPRISING RIGHT ANGULARLY DISPOSEDROLLERS SIMULTANEOUSLY ENGAGING SAID RIGHT ANGULARLY DISPOSED FACES OFSAID SUPPORTING TRACK, WHEREBY THE DOOR WILL GRAVITATE DOWNWARDLY ANDINWARDLY AGAINST THE WALL WHEN IN A CLOSED POSITION, AND CAM MEANS FIXEDADJACENT THE OPENING AND ENGAGING THE BOTTOM MARGIN OF THE DOOR TO URGETHE BOTTOM MARGIN INWARDLY AGAINST THE WALL WHEN IN THE CLOSED POSITION.